Love Match
by Car
Summary: Pokemon!AU. Alfred and Arthur finally arrive at the next gym, only to find that the gym leader, Francis, seems far more interested in Arthur than his battle with Alfred. Alfred is NOT amused.
1. Chapter 1

Alfred cracked his knuckles, staring up at the bright, florescent blue GYM sign above the door with a grin. Yeah, it had taken a bit more time than he anticipated to get here, but together with Arthur's superior navigation skills, and his insistence that they _not_ stop every five freaking minutes for a tea break, they managed to make it before dark.

"And we can't wait until morning to do this _why?_" Arthur grumbled, picking a twig out of his hair with distaste and flicking it away. "The gym will be here in the morning, I promise."

"Aren't you always telling me not to put stuff off?" Alfred chuckled. "Besides! If I don't go in and win now, I'll be talking and worrying about it all night, and I'll make you listen and comfort me and—"

"I get it, I get it! Please, lead the way!"

Alfred did just that, running up the stairs two at a time. With one last deep breath, he gabbed the handle and pulled.

Nothing.

"What the hell?" he asked, trying again just in case.

Arthur sniffed arrogantly, finally reaching the top of the steps. "I told you it was too bloody late."

Alfred pouted. "They can't be closed!" he moaned. "Since when do gyms close?"

"Since Gym Leaders became _human_ and needed _sleep_?" Arthur scoffed. "Honestly, Alfred. Just grab your things, we'll go to the Pokemon Center, get some sleep, and come back in the morning."

"I guess you're right," Alfred said with a sigh. He stared longingly at door for a moment more, before turning back to Arthur-

And coming face to face with a rather flamboyant French guy instead.

"Ahh!"

"_Bonjour!_"

"Dude! Where the hell did you come from?" Alfred gasped.

The French guy smiled, flipping his long, blond hair over his shoulder, and gesturing to the GYM sign with flourish. "I was leaving for home when I saw you standing here trying to force your way into my gym," he said, airily, without a hint of real accusation. "I figured I would come over and see what it was you were doing."

Alfred scratched the back of his head, chuckling a little in slight embarrassment. "Yeah, sorry bro, we just got in, and I was hope- wait did you say _your_ gym?" he asked hopefully. The French guy grinned.

"_Oui_. I am the leader of this gym." He held out his hand for Alfred to shake. "Francis Bonnefoy, at your service."

"Sweet!" Alfred exclaimed, shaking his hand enthusiastically. "Alfred Jones! Dude, you don't think..."

Francis raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow in amusement. "You want to battle for a badge tonight?"

"_Would you?_"

"I suppose it can be arranged..." he said with a smile, pulling a shiny key from his pocket and letting it swing playfully on his finger.

Alfred pumped his fist into the air with a whoop of joy. "Yes!"

"Brilliant," Arthur sighed, speaking up for the first time since the Frenchman arrived. "Let's get this nonsense over with so I can get some sleep tonight."

Francis paused in unlocking the door and directed his attention to Arthur, who was standing in the corner with arms crossed, and a sour look on his face. He blinked a few times in surprise, before a grin crept it's way over his lips. "Well, well, well, what do we have here?" he sang, pocketing the key and crossing across the landing. "I do not believe I have had the _plaisir._"

Arthur furrowed his eyebrows, extending his hand for an uneasy handshake. "Arthur Kirkland, Coordinator," he replied curtly, jumping in surprise when, rather than shaking it, Francis bowed and kissed his hand delicately. "What the devil are you _doing?_" he exclaimed, his face flushing.

"It is unusual to find such a _beau_ creature on my doorstep," he said smoothly, winking at Arthur flirtatiously. "And is that a Hoenn accent I am detecting? It is so nice to find someone from my home region here in Kanto."

"Y-yes, Mossdeep," Arthur stuttered, wiggling his hand away from Francis's.

"Ah," he purred. "I am from Lilycove. We are practically neighbors!"

"That's nice and all," Alfred grumbled, not enjoying being ignored, and enjoying the way that Francis was talking to Arthur even less, "but I believe you promised me a battle."

Unfortunately for him, Francis didn't appear to notice anything that wasn't Arthur. "Surely you have been to the Contest Hall in Lilycove!" he gasped. "It is one of the most famous in the world!"

"I haven't," Arthur replied. "Registration was closed by the time I arrived, so I wasn't able to compete."

"_Sacre bleu!_ This is a tragedy! _Cher,_ you let me know the next time you are home, and I will _ensure_ that you are entered!"

"O-oh, no, I couldn't-"

"_J'insiste! _Talent should never be hidden from the world by a silly time limit!"

Alfred tapped his fingers impatiently on his bicep, his arms crossed across his chest in irritation. Who did this guy think he was, anyway? Sure he was like, a gym leader and stuff, but he was totally pompous! Why the heck did Arthur give _him_ such a hard time about being a little confident in himself, while this guy had an ego the size of a Wailord, and he was eating it all up!

It was when Francis started suggesting giving Arthur a tour of gym grounds that Alfred finally had enough.

"And after that, we'll have my battle, right?" he snapped, probably a little more sharply than he intended. Francis and Arthur seemed to jump in surprise, as if realizing for the first time that Alfred was still there.

And that _really_ pissed him off.

"Ah, _Monsieur_ Jones, I almost forgot. I will have to, how you say, take a rain check for tonight," Francis said with a not even remotely apologetic smile. "Something has suddenly come up."

Alfred gaped. "_What?_ What could've possibly come up? We were with you this whole time!"

"Well, that depends on Arthur," Francis replied. Arthur blinked owlishly.

"Me?"

"_Oui. _How would you like to join me for dinner tonight?"

"D-dinner?"

Alfred scoffed. "Pfft, yeah right. Artie doesn't wanna go to dinner with _you_."

"Alfred!" Arthur snapped with a glare.

"_What_?" he exclaimed. "You always tell me you hate people from Lilycove! You call them frog-faces and snail breath!"

Arthur's mouth hung open for a few moments. He snapped it shut finally, his face a brilliant red, and his green eyes flaring with haughty, angry, stubbornness. "Actually, _Alfred_, I would _love_ to go to dinner with Francis! Unless, of course, there is something _else_ about myself you would like to inform me!"

Alfred inwardly winced, but was determined not to let his companion know how much that comment stung, so he glared back with just as much force. "Only that you're a pain in my ass, but I'm sure you know _that_ one already!"

Arthur grit his teeth, but calmed himself down by sticking his nose into the air with a huff. "Come, Francis. I'm sure you know the best places in town to eat," he sang, the bitterness practically dripping from his words as he turned on his heels and walked off.

Francis looked from Alfred to Arthur in surprise and, unless Alfred was imagining it, a little bit of cheeky understanding and noticing something they were both trying to hide, before nodding and following the coordinator down the stairs.

Alfred stomped in the direction of the Pokemon Center, refusing to look back at where the others walked off together.

* * *

**Pokemon AU's are a total guilty pleasure of mine XD **

**This will be 2 parts, and hopefully the 2nd part will be up before next Thursday, because I'm going to visit the family in Chicago, and my parents don't have internet. XD XD**

**Hope you enjoy! Oh, and if any of you old Pokemon fans are getting Misty Meets Her Match feels from this, you are totally right, I'm totally kinda going off of that glorious episode. XD XD**

**-Car**


	2. Chapter 2

Dinner had been lovely.

Francis had taken him to a nice restaurant that overlooked the water, where he had ordered real food that didn't come out of a can. They talked about Hoenn; places they had visited as children, foods and fashion they grew up enjoying, and Pokemon that were special, only to that area of the world.

Francis asked about his past, his plans for the future, his family, his friends, his contests. He was polite, he was refined, he was every single thing Arthur had wished Alfred was for the past three years he had known him. And yet...

Yet Arthur _missed_ him. He missed eating beans cooked in tin over the fire, he missed Alfred's constant bragging and boasting, he missed hearing and rehearing the same stories of the same battles, he missed the way-too-loud laughter, the ridiculous hero complex that had almost killed them both on multiple occasions, the bright smiles, the even brighter eyes.

He missed his Alfred, and he felt like a fool for even trying to substitute him.

"Wouldn't you agree, _mon cher_?" Francis asked, pulling Arthur roughly from his thoughts.

The coordinator blushed, coughing into his hand to hide the fact he wasn't even remotely paying attention. "I'm sorry, what were you saying?" he tried pathetically.

Francis smiled knowingly. "You were lost thinking of something else?"

"What? Of course not!" he exclaimed, much too loudly. "What on earth else would I be thinking of? I've just had a wonderful dinner with wonderful company-"

"And yet you are still thinking of _Monsieur Alfred?_" Arthur choked as Francis smirked knowingly. "He must be something _extraordinaire _to be on your mind after a night like this, _non_?"

Arthur's face flushed, and he immediately turned it away. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Oh, I think you do, _mon cher_!" Francis sang, dancing around Arthur to get a better look at his face. "You are blushing!"

"I am not, bloody frog-face!"

Francis's grin only widened. "Ah, there is that Mossdeep charm I have tried so hard to forget!" Arthur's pout and blush deepened together. "Now, now, Arthur, I jest!" He threw a causal arm around his shoulders. "But honestly, how long have you and the young _entraîneur_ been in _amour__?_"

Arthur wiggled away from Francis with a quick elbow to his chest, and crossed his arms in a huff as soon as he was out of arm's reach. "No one is in _amour_ with anyone," he snapped, letting the bitterness of this confession seep through despite his best efforts. Francis smiled sadly.

"Ah, so you believe it to be an unrequited affair, then?" he asked, keeping in step with Arthur, who had increased his walking speed ever so slightly since they reached this topic. "At least on the side of the young _entraîneur_?"

Arthur's face flushed even more violent red. "You have no idea what you're talking about."

Francis sighed. "I see. You know, you are surprisingly unobservant for a coordinator."

This got his attention. "And what is that supposed to mean?" he snapped.

"I was both a trainer and a coordinator before I inherited my gym," Francis explained. "I would travel the world according to the contest schedule, and if the town I was in so happened to have had a gym, then _fantastique _for me!" He closed his eyes, perhaps to help himself better remember the past. "It was then that I realized the differences between a coordinator and a trainer.

"A trainer, for instance, sees a Bubblebeam attack as simply that, an attack. It is released with the intent to harm its opponent, and once it has completed its task, it is forgotten about. A _coordinator,_ however," he paused to make sure Arthur was paying attention, "sees a Bubblebeam as a thing of beauty, _as well_ as a thing of battle. They are able to see beyond the surface of the attack, and see deeper; see what else it could be."

Arthur narrowed his eyes in confusion. "I don't under-"

"Trainers," Francis continued, a coy smile gracing his lips, "often struggle to notice the deeper meanings of things." He smirked. "But I believe, that if given enough time, even the densest trainer will notice the beauty they have been neglecting."

O

"Hello sir! What can I help you with today?"

Alfred smiled weakly at the resident Nurse Joy, popping each of his pokeballs off of his belt and placing them in the offered tray. "Just a check-up, ma'am," he said kindly. "Got a badge to win tomorrow, and I need the team in tip-top shape!"

Joy smiled in return, taking the pokeballs and nodding at Alfred politely. "I wish you the best of luck, then! Your pokemon will be ready at nine o'clock in the morning on the dot. Will you be staying with us tonight?"

"You betcha."

"Great!" She pulled open a drawer, pulling out a small key attached to a plastic Chansey, printed with the number 231. "Here you are."

"Awesome- Oh, this room has two beds, right?"

Joy nodded. "Yes it does. Are you expecting company?"

Alfred chanced a glance at the wall clock; two hours until curfew. "No," he sighed. "I was just curious."

Once his pokemon had been taken care of, Alfred got himself a small dinner in the canteen, which he took out onto the center's balcony to eat. He ate in silence, trying, and failing, not to notice the other trainers and coordinators chatting and milling around him.

He wandered around the lobby for another half hour, trying to keep himself busy until curfew. He sent Mattie a message on his pokegear (he, ever so kindly, replied: "go to bed, you moron," the little dweeb), checked his inventory of potions and elixirs, and made a quick call to Professor Juniper to check on the pokemon he had with her. With one hour left until curfew, he finally decided to retire to his room.

Arthur was a smart guy, he would figure out how to find him.

The room was exactly like every other Pokemon Center he had spent the night in over the last nine years. A small window in one corner, a pair of bunk beds in the other, two dressers, and a tall floor lamp next to a watercolor painting of a stream.

The only thing missing was Arthur.

Without his pokemon and his best friend, Alfred couldn't help but feel lonely. He checked his pokegear quickly for the time, forty three minutes until curfew.

Arthur still had time to make it back.

Alfred just hoped he would.

O

"Well, thank you for a wonderful evening," Arthur said as they arrived at the door in which the rather irritated Nurse Joy had directed him. "_Even_ if you almost got me locked out."

Francis laughed. "We were but two minutes late! Besides, you would have been welcomed to spend the night with _moi_-"

"I would rather eat a Grimer, but thank you for the offer, snail-breath." Arthur smirked and shook Francis's hand. "I will see you tomorrow at Alfred's match. A-and," he paused, glancing at Francis out of the corner of his eye, his hand on the door and a blush on his cheeks, "about what we discussed earlier...I hope you're right."

"I always am, _mon ami,_" Francis replied. "_Bonsoir_!"

Arthur watched Francis's retreating figure down the hallway, and once he was out sight, he took a deep breath and braced himself once again on the doorknob. Hopefully, Alfred would be sleeping, Arthur wasn't sure if he would be able to face the boy at that moment. As carefully and quietly as he could, he pushed the door open and slipped inside.

"Have a good _date?_" No such luck.

Arthur sighed. Alfred had sounded upset, and after speaking to Francis, rightfully so. However, he still couldn't bring himself to accept that Alfred could possibly...that he might just...

"It wasn't a _date_," he said curtly, tossing his bag next to Alfred's on the dresser. "It was dinner." He glared at Alfred, who was reading a magazine on the top bunk.

"Dinner with the enemy," Alfred snapped. Arthur rolled his eyes.

"Oh, he's the _enemy_ now? True, he's a bit of a tosser, but haven't you always been the one to defend your opponents in the past?" Alfred remained silent and ducked behind his magazine with a huff. Arthur rolled his eyes. "Such a child," he mumbled.

Without a word, he quickly changed into his pajamas and climbed into bed just as Alfred clicked off the lamp. Arthur hoped morning came soon. The sooner they left this bloody town the better.

* * *

**Sooooo I lied, this is actually gonna be a three-parter. XD This is because I leave for Chicago on Thursday and I wouldn't have gotten this part AND the epic battle done before then, so I will give you this and write the last part during my vacation when I am dying without internet. **

**Poor Arthur and Alfred. Don't make Ash and Misty's mistakes you guys, BE SMARTER THAN THAT, YOU TWO. XD**

**Anyway, hope you enjoyed! Until next time!**

**-Car**


End file.
